Jaabar Citadel

Jaabar
Citadel (Jaabar Castle):

north eastern shore of Lake Assad, at 3.5 km
from dam wall; Jaabar Citedel uses a central
core of high ground, tightly circumscribed
by defensive walls and a ditch. However, the
entrance gateway and ramp and much of the
largely brick walls are worth inspection.

It goes back in time to the Zengid, Ayyubid
and Mameluke periods in northern Syria and
to the build-up of Arab resistance to the
Crusaders. In an earlier attempt to dislodge
the Crusaders, Zengi was killed before its
walls after a quarrel with a Frankish
eunuch.

The remains which are seen today date from
the rule of Zengi's son Nur al-Din who, as
his father's successor in Aleppo, fulfilled
his vision of bringing Syria under united
Muslim rule by 1154. His rebuilding of the
castle began in 1168.